Oh, and Schwarber is destroying high-A and will probably join Tennessee soon.

/yawn Just another night of Cubs baseball. Except that Schwarber couldn't get a hit in his first game in High A, Daytona, where he just got promoted to. He probably starts in AA next year after what I expect to be a strong AFL. Similar to Bryant last year. He'll then get traded at some point next year to fill a need unless they trade some of the prospects this off-season. I'm assuming they will move Schwarber off catcher since they have said they'll promote him based on his bat and his defense will dictate LF/1B. If they tolerate below average, which might be a generous description, at catcher he might stick around.

Kizz Fastfists wrote:I'm assuming they will move Schwarber off catcher since they have said they'll promote him based on his bat and his defense will dictate LF/1B. If they tolerate below average, which might be a generous description, at catcher he might stick around.

I'm holding out hope that the last thing Selig does as commissioner is add the DH to the NL.

I think the next promotion will probably be Soler to Iowa. He's just been killing it since coming back from his injury. Plus, given his contract, the team won't need to play any service time games as they likely will with Bryant.

Also interesting to note: Baez started at 2B tonight, which might be his long-term position in Chicago.

Soler has killed everything he has seen. I'm not sure if they will move him up to AAA this year or just start him there for the first 3-4 weeks next year before bringing him up with Bryant and Baez, but I do expect all three of them to come up together as soon as they preserve the year of service time next season which is around 3 weeks into the season.

I wouldn't be shocked if Soler gets called up the last 3-4 weeks to the Cubs. Minors season ends like a month or so before the MLB season is over, right? At this point Soler just needs to keep getting practice. Because he has no service time questions due to his contract, the best thing for his development would be to keep getting at bats (while he is healthy).

I wouldn't be surprised if Schwarber, Soler and Russell all end up playing for Iowa in the playoffs just to get them some more games depending on when the others finish their season. I think they'll give Soler a break between the end of the minor league season and AFL. He could start in Iowa or Chicago next year. I'm interested to see who they will send to the AFL this year. I'm assuming Soler and Russell as they missed time this year. Schwarber as he looks to be on a similar path as Bryant and they are still trying to sort out his position. Almora should be there again. As for pitchers I'm guessing Tseng, Edwards, Johnson and Corey Black all seem possible.

That would make Iowa must watch TV for any Cubs (or really baseball) fan. Would be awesome to watch that potential lineup for a few games. Realistically though, I doubt Schwarber would get called up for that. Soler seems likely he'll get called up for something like that or perhaps more unlikely a brief stint in Chicago. Russell could go either way. All three seem like locks for the AFL. As far as pitching for the AFL, I'd send Tseng, Edwards and Underwood.

It it common for a prospect to get jumped significantly when another team in the organization is in the playoffs just to get them more playing time and coaching. Baez might be up before then though. He has played 2B the last three games and he could be getting ready for a call up to Chicago. Having him play 2B starts to show up how they see some things long-term. If we pencil in Baez at 2B to go with Alcantara in CF and Rizzo at 1B we have the fun debate about Russell and Castro at SS and where Bryant ends up, RF/LF.

It depends. Assuming Alcantara does what he projects to do Almora wouldn't unseat him and would be trade bait. The Cubs have too many prospects. Which is a VERY good problem to have. They can trade for pitching. They can have multiple backup plans in case a prospect doesn't make it. There have been rumblings of Russell and other prospects to the Rays for David Price. Having the number of high end prospects the Cubs have gives them a LOT of options to explore.

Soler to AAA, Almora to AA. Soler is not terribly surprising (maybe a tiny bit sooner then anyone was expecting), but Almora is a bit of a shocker imo. Almora has adjusted pretty well the past two months or so after such a horrid start to this season. Kudos to both of these guys.